Grant: Operating Grant

Periodontal disease is the most common infection in Canadian adults, and incidence is expected to increase as the population ages. In this disease, the attachment of teeth to the jawbone is destroyed by bacterial infection. Despite the high prevalence and significant economic burden of periodontal infections, there are major obstacles to effective and long-lasting treatment. In particular, reattachment of the ligament that connects to tooth root to the jawbone is still not possible. Here we propose to study the mechanism by which the ligament attaches to the root of the tooth in healthy teeth in order to design more effective strategies for achieving re-attachment in treatment of periodontitis. This will be achieved by the application of advanced electron microscopy techniques to study native tissues, along with the development of novel laboratory model systems to probe the molecular factors controlling tooth attachment.